On Cultural Differences And Barriers And Treatment In Literary Translation

Language is the carrier of culture and reflects different cultural backgrounds. Cultural difference directly affects language communication. "Culture might be defined as the ideas, customs, skills, arts, and tools which characterize a given people in a given period of time. " (H. D. Brown, 1980: p. 123-124). Language and culture are closely related to each other. In B. W. Robinett' s view, language usage reflects the culture of a society (1978: p. 133). This relationship between language and culture forms an important aspect in literary translation. Language usage cannot exist outside a certain society or social context. Language is not only a tool of communication, but also a means to reflect cultural features of a nation (M. A. K. Halliday, 1973: p. 41). P. P. Gilioli thinks that the premise for second language learners to communicate with native speakers and understand social meaning is to have a common cultural standard and background knowledge (1972: p. 6).This paper expounds the barriers in literary translation caused by cultural differences, including different historical background, different religious beliefs, different living environments or geographic positions, different modes of thinking and association and different social conventional culture. It holds that it is not acceptable to lay undue emphasis one-sidedly on the untranslatability of cultural concerns in literature, and that both literal translation (or alienation) and free translation (or adaptation), the most commonly-used approaches to tackling cultural differences, may be justified in their own right if we take into consideration the differences on the purpose of translation, the type of texts, the intention of the author and the readership, as theirrational application helps realize the communication and improve its quality. Therefore, this paper stresses that the present climax of disputes as to which is to be adopted should not be carried out too far. Literal translation and free translation have been "twin sisters" ever since the work of translation came into being, which is historically true both in the East and in the West, and the successful practice by our forerunners, such as Xuanzang and Lu Xun, should be inherited and developed. Translation is a linguistic activity which demands objectivity instead of subjectivity from the translator, and literal translation is an effective means to achieve this end. But meanwhile we should know that literal translation is not the sole and universal method for it has its own limitations. My view of literal translation and free translation may be boiled down to one conclusion that the two methods are indispensable and supplementary to each other with the former as the primary and the latter as the secondary and ought to be adopted in a flexible and realistic manner.Finally, five commonly-used approaches are suggested to deal with barriers resulting from cultural differences: (1) literal translation and/or free translation with notes and/or exposition; (2) conversion or rejection of images; (3) addition or omission; (4) conversion of the concrete and the abstract; (5) substitution and (6) analogy. Whatever methods we adopt in dealing with cultural differences, I think we should adhere to the three following principles in literary translation:(1) To make translation appropriate(2) To retain the charm and flavor of the source culture(3) To fall in with the cultural psychological habits of the target readers...